Crude oil slicks of large area are sometimes formed on ocean water as a result of loss of crude oil from a ruptured underwater oil well. Slicks of crude and/or fuel oil are also sometimes formed by loss from leaking or ruptured tanker vessels. The damage wrought by such spills is too well-known to require further comment. Much effort has been expended to develop means quickly and efficiently to collect these oil slicks, but nothing has been announced to the present time that will pick up the oil both thoroughly and quickly enough to prevent very serious damage to beaches, harbors, other vessels, wild life, etc., especially when the spill is on large open bodies of water.
The best procedure found to date according to published reports has been to throw straw onto the oil slick, and then to gather up the oil-laden straw. Actually, crude oil, as well as fuel oil, can be quite heavy, viscous, and sticky or adhesive, particularly after exposure to sun and weather on the surface of the water for two or three days. Such heavy, viscous, sticky oil adheres suprisingly well to any object dipped therein. A paddle dipped in heavy crude or fuel oil may lift out a layer of oil approaching a half-inch in thickness on each side. As a further example, I have found that a lead pencil can draw up a tubular blob of oil of, for example, approximately three times its own diameter, depending of course, upon the condition of the oil. A quantity of straw scattered on the oil slick thus can "hold onto" a large proportionate quantity of petroleum. To date, however, so far as I am aware, there has appeared no satisfactory method of collecting the oil-laden straw from the water surface.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a novel and improved process and an apparatus for picking up oil slicks from the surface of a body of water, and to do so effectively, efficiently, and rapidly enough to constitute a practical solution to the existing problem of menacing oil slicks.